soulspeak

Today at noon, I came to a room together with some other people in my church who had gathered to pray. There was no big program, just us, sitting awkwardly in pews and on the front edge of the stage, trying to make a sort of circle. It didn’t work; we were an oval, and a poorly formed one at that, and some of us were on the floor. We made small talk, quietly. Each new person that entered the room was a reassurance, a small fresh breath telling us that we were not alone.

When you decide to meet and just pray – well, there’s not a pretense. Something like when you appear in public in your swimsuit for the first time each summer – at some point you have to squash that small screaming voice in your head and take off your other clothes and stand there, pale and wintry. Not to mention the lack of fitness or the too-cold pool.

So it is, in this room. You didn’t just come through for a cup of coffee, or to say hi. You’re here. With these other people. You shift in your seat, try not to giggle. The prayer begins and you wonder what to say, or if you will accidentally speak at the same time as someone else. How will we know when to end? What happens next? I can see her feet…

But then it begins to happen – voices speaking softly. My heart warms and turns…somehow. This is the unexplainable thing – that we can speak to God.

In that space, that small span of time, we become. Together, souls laid bare before the greatest love, we are family.